Traditional silver halide cameras typically display the number of the current frame to be exposed to the user. The user must use this information in conjunction with the number of frames available in the film canister to calculate the number of frames that remain to be exposed. All of this information is never provided to the user in a concise fashion and the number has to be read and understood. Recently introduced Advanced Photographic System ("APS") cameras will provide some assistance in this area by providing a number that corresponds to the number of frames remaining to be exposed. However, the user will have no method for determining the number of frames that he or she has previously exposed. Computer software has recently become available which allows scrolling through many low resolution images, alone or in conjunction with a higher resolution image, on a computer platform. For example, the recently available PICTURE DISK software from Eastman Kodak, which is provided to a customer on a diskette along with scanned images from a roll of film, presents a screen in a Microsoft Windows environment with thumbnails of the images, and a vertical scroll bar on the Windows screen which allows a user to scroll through the thumbnails. Even in such computer software, once again the user must manually switch viewing modes or be satisfied with a high resolution image that fills only a portion of the display.
The above problem is exacerbated in cameras that provide an electronic review feature. Such cameras typically have a sensor (such as a CCD area array) to capture an image of the real world as a corresponding image signal, storage medium on which to store the captured image signals, and a screen on which any previously captured stored images can be reviewed. Such cameras include so called hybrid cameras, which capture images of the real world on conventional silver halide photographic film as well as corresponding image signals.
When searching through a database of stored images on such electronic cameras, the typical user often expresses the need to see both an image that fills nearly the entire screen and a plurality of images that can be used for image browsing to facilitate the search for a specific image. The need for an image to fill practically the entire screen is driven by the use of small, direct view displays where the display will generally be 5 inches in diagonal or smaller. Given this small image size, the user desires a larger image and is unwilling to accept an image which is significantly smaller than the entire display. At the same time, the user desires the ability to browse a number of images at a time to find a specific image in what could potentially be a stored list of hundreds of images. It is known that the ability to browse a number of images at one time can facilitate image search, especially when the list of images has some order that is perceptually relevant to the searcher.
Prior cameras, such as the Casio QV-10 and the Eastman Kodak DC 25, typically provide one viewing mode where the largest image possible is shown on the image display, and a second previewing mode where a plurality of smaller images are shown in a manner filling the entire display. The latter mode is more effectively used to search through a database of images as it provides the user the ability to quickly browse and scroll quickly through a number of images. However, the user must press a separate button to switch viewing modes each time that he or she wishes to search for an image after viewing the full resolution image. When the preview mode button is pressed, the larger size image is removed and replaced with a full screen of a number of smaller images. Within each of these modes, the camera provides forward and backward buttons for scrolling through the images either one at a time (in which case the images currently on the display move by one smaller image space on the display) or by a number equal to the number of smaller images shown on the display. When the smaller version of a desired image is positioned in a specific location of the preview screen, the user must again depress the preview mode button, at which point the full screen of smaller resolution images is replaced by a full screen version of the desired image. If on such prior cameras the user then wishes to see a full screen preview of another stored image in the image list, the foregoing procedure (push preview mode button, push scroll button until desired image found, then push preview mode button) must again be repeated.
The foregoing procedure can become exceedingly tedious. This is particularly true given that, in view of the small size of the smaller resolution images seen in the preview mode (and hence the difficulty in clearly seeing the image features), it may be necessary for the user to repeat this procedure several times before she finally has a full screen version of the image they really wish to see. Further, due to the portability requirements of cameras, and the desire to make them ever smaller, the controls necessarily are made smaller to save space. Repeating such a sequence of pressing one button, moving the controlling finger to another button, then back to the first button again, several times over on small buttons at different locations on an already compact camera body, can rapidly become an exercise in frustration for most consumers.
Additionally, to access multiple buttons while holding a camera, a consumer will typically use an index finger alone (which will typically require complete removal of one hand from a camera holding position with the camera held between both thumbs and forefingers of both hands), or will use two different fingers (which requires a relatively high degree of user dexterity). These actions require further hand and wrist motions as a consumer alternates between a picture taking mode with the two hands holding the camera, and a review mode in which the foregoing multiple button pressing sequence is repeated to access a full screen version of a desired image.
It would be desirable then, to provide an electronic camera wherein smaller resolutions of a multiple stored images can be reviewed, and a larger resolution of a then selected image displayed. In such a camera, it would be desirable to reduce or avoid a repetitive sequence of multiple button pushing in order to accomplish the review and obtain the full-screen image display. It would further be desirable if such a camera requires only relatively low dexterity and hand movement to accomplish multiple sequences of reviews and full screen displays.